The Center for Public Scholarship and the Food Studies Program at The New School are pleased to present the 29th Social Research conference, "Food and Immigrant Life: The Role of Food in Forced Migration, Migrant Labor, and Re-creating Home." The conference will examine the complex relationships between food and migration. Food scarcity is not only at the root of much human displacement and migration-the food industry also offers immigrants an entry point into the U.S. economic system while simultaneously confining migrants to low wages and poor, if not unsafe, work conditions. At the same time, food allows immigrants to maintain their cultural identity. The conference places issues of immigration and food service work in the context of a broader social justice agenda and explores the cultural role food plays in expressing cultural heritage.
DOLORES HUERTA: KEYNOTE ADDRESS ON THE PLIGHT OF MIGRANT FARM WORKERS
In the United States, the restaurant industry and the agricultural industry, including the increasingly numerous farmers' markets, depend on migrant workers. They perform most of the hard physical work, usually out of view of the consumer, while their position in society is marginal at best.
Dolores Huerta, co-founder (with César Chávez) and first vice president emeritus, United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW); president, Dolores Huerta Foundation
Moderator: Saru Jayaraman, director, Food Labor Research Center, UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education; co-founder and co-director, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United); author, Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press)
The conference is made possible through a collaboration between The New School's Center for Public Scholarship and the Food Studies program as well as the Writing Program, India China Institute, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, Center for New York City Affairs, Global Studies program, Gender Studies program, and International Center for Migration, Ethnicity, and Citizenship (ICMEC).
Location: Tishman Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J. M. Kaplan Hall
04/18/2013 7:00-8:00 p.m.

Dolores Huerta

Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta is a labor leader and civil rights activist who, along with César Chávez, co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.